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Shena moved to Maui in 1990 and has worked in the travel industry for most of that time. She's currently an on-site wedding co-ordinator where she oversees the location, ministerial management, photography, videography, catering, music, flowers and a million more details to make sure that people from...read more

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Ice Bars and Hearts in the Sky

Article by Taj Barnhart

Hawaii's high-rollers show us how to glam up Maui destination weddings

Bill Gates must hold the record for the most extravagant wedding in Hawaii, not because of fanfare but because of his preemptive privacy plan. He booked the whole island of Lanai—from lodging to airspace. Glam up your wedding with ideas from Hawaii's high rollin' couples.

Island scale buy-outs are by no means typical, but the wedding elite doesn't shy from monopolizing golf courses, restaurants, and resorts. One Hollywood couple wanted a loud late-night band. To overcome noise restrictions, they booked an entire hotel, says Danielle Haney of A Maui Style Wedding. Their "picture perfect" wedding also included "movie food" for the guests at all times, just as if the wedding week was a film production. At another wedding each guests' drink preference was noted and the bar stocked accordingly. And a golfing duo, bent on Manele Bay's signature hole as the ceremony backdrop, bought up the day's tee times to the dismay of fellow golfers.

How else do today's bride & groom tie the knot in style? Well-to-do couples easily drop several hundred thousand depending on size or location variables, says Carolee Higashino of A White Orchid Wedding. Destination brides with unlimited budgets make a tricky customer. "Most of them tell me to dazzle them," says Higashino. Her secret for doing so? "Ice, ice baby," she says. "An entire bar made of ice, lit in volcanic colors, with a volcano flowing with lilikoi (passionfruit) vodka shooters for the guests. I also did a pagoda ice-sculpted sushi bar."